SINGAPORE - She had been warned by her doctor not to buy dubious
weight-loss pills online. And on discovering sachets of yellow
capsules in parcels that were delivered to her daughter, her mother
repeatedly threw them away.
Despite all the efforts to stop her, Ms Grace Yu Jing Ni continued
to take the pills, and paid for it with her life.
The 24-year-old suffered chest pains after swallowing the capsules
- bought at the www.eurosteroids.org website for $335 through a
Ukrainian seller - on Jan 12 this year.
Taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, she later died of dinitrophenol
(DNP) poisoning. DNP causes rapid loss of weight but has adverse
side-effects and is banned here.
On Friday, a
coroner's inquiry into her death heard that she had been admitted
to the same hospital in 2011 for drug toxicity after taking similar
pills.
She also received
psychiatric treatment for depression and was warned by a doctor of
the dangers of taking slimming medications bought online.
In the past, Ms
Yu's mother, 55, a manager in a transport company, had opened
parcels addressed to her daughter and discovered sachets of yellow
capsules without any labels.
She threw these
away. It is believed Ms Yu - who had dropped out of the Singapore
Institute of Management in May 2009 and was jobless - had placed
the online orders at an Internet cafe as she did not have a
computer or laptop at home.
A check with
SingPost revealed that she had collected a parcel that arrived from
Turkey on Jan 4.
Investigation
officer Khairulizan Ishak told the court that Ms Yu, who was "a bit
plump", was particular about her weight. She ate only healthy food
and would shop for organic products.
At 10pm on Jan 11,
her mother saw her in bed sweating profusely and breathing heavily.
She also found several packets of yellow capsules.
Ms Yu said she had
swallowed five pills and needed to rest as she was feeling
tired.
